Different Strokes

"Well, why didn't I think of raisin sauce? I went over to get Susan on Weds. night and made up my mind after the fiasco on Tues. that I was not going to argue with her no matter what. We went down to a concert at the Bluebird in Denver. She met a couple friends from the college days to see a guy that they all went to college with and were close friends. I had not heard his music since then and has he come a long way. We really didhave fun but how these kids can do the volume, I have no idea. They are all going to be deaf so if you could invent a hearing aid that would be exceptional, probably would make tons of money down the road.

Had a nice drive back, visited. Again I just listened and didn't interject any thoughts. Very calm. Yesterday I woke up and was going to run to Albertsons for a few things and the tire was flat on the Cadillac. You haveto believe that I had a special angel because it was shredded, must have gone flat somewhere coming back from Denver. The lovely two guys from across the street saw me and came over to help change it. Got the donut on and went to get more air and made it to the corner and that one went flat. (You must know I remained calm throughout. Aren't you proud of me?)

Down come the boys again to help. Harry on the corner tried to fill it but it had lost its bead so they had to take the tire off to fill it. Now we were in business. All was good but I knew that I had to do something with the tiresituation.

Hank was insistant that he did not want black walls on the car so two weeks ago I ordered ones with white walls. Very hard to get anymore and no one had them locally. I told him we could not wait and Friday, it was going to be black walls. I got on the internet and looked around and lo and behold, it said that Walmart had white walls. Sams had told me they did not and I wouldn't find them anywhere. So did all of the other stores. I thought Walmart might be open so I called, they were and had the tires. Can youbelieve that? So on a beautiful Thanksgiving Day, I went to Walmart and had four new tires put on the darling's car and he is thrilled. Always something.

Susan and I made dinner. She did most of the cooking and I just helped. We had ham, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes (Yukons don't mash well-gooey but tasted good), cranberries, deviled eggs and pistachio pudding. She did a wonderful job and we had a great time. Nice dinner and then the same neighbor (whose kids she grew up with) had us over for pie and Pictionary. What a blast! I think it was so good for her. I took her back to Greeley at 10.

Today we are going down to Thornton for dinner and then tomorrow I will get Susan and we will go down so she can see the kids. We are on Mitsy's schedule but again, Laura, I am just remaining calm.

Feel like a Zen moment has come over me.

I told Susan that she can come home any time if things don't work out. She seemed to appreciate that. It appears wierd to me but I know where they live now and will keep an eye on the situation if I have to do a quick rescue.

Glad that Betsy had a good time at your place. That is so nice that you take an interest in her and do things. We talked to Bitsy and of course, she was not happy that we had not come down but with all my excitement, no way. It is not like I do not do anything with her. She is so exhausting and unfortunately, with the combo of the brain injury and the bipolar, she has very poor judgement. If I let her do things on her own or live on her own, she would be gone and that would create more problems for me.

Hank's Packers won and he was thrilled, they picked up the Suburban on Tues so that is in the works to be fixed. Little by little as my Dad would say. Then I have to figure out the Florida trip.

I am exhausted. It reached in the high 60s here yesterday. Wierd. People on the lake, out in shorts and felt like summer."

Actually, Susan is her *Grand-daughter* that the grand parents raised like a daughter when the brain damaged bi-polar one parked her on them and disappeared for 20 some years. She only got back in touch because she was in a horrible motor-cycle accident and unable to care for herself. Now she's in a nursing home, and she refuses to let them bring her daughter (Susan) to the home for visits.

It was all so complex she had to call me up to explain all the underlying stories that really had her dreading the holiday, and then this was the followup. She said: "See why I couldn't put all this in an email?"